


Something is rotten in Denmark

by snowynight



Category: Hamlet - Shakespeare
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Character Study, Gen, Horror, POV First Person, Retelling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-11
Updated: 2011-12-11
Packaged: 2017-10-27 05:09:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/291926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowynight/pseuds/snowynight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"So tell him, with th’ occurrents, more and less which have solicited,” my lord said with his dying breath. I lied instead</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something is rotten in Denmark

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Gileonnen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gileonnen/gifts).



> Thanks to Aris_TGD and the Yuletide chat!

"So tell him, with th’ occurrents, more and less which have solicited.” My Lord said with his dying breath.

How shall I disobey you, My Lord? And when should I start?

When I first set my eyes on My Lord back in Wittenberg, back then I had not known his name, it was his eyes that held me. I felt that my face burnt when the burning fire in his eyes reached me. I heard the whisper that he was Hamlet, the crowning prince of Denmark. He and I but sky and dirt, but I could not resist his spell, like a moth to the fire.

Later I had the honour to approach my Lord further and my humble Lord was willing to make an acquaintance with me. We laughed; we drank; we studied; we conversed. However, although I could dare to say I was closer to him than the others, the fire that drew me in guarded himself away from a better scrutiny. A mark of true royalty, then I thought.

And he indeed gave his highest regard to his King father of Denmark. I could see from the admiring glint in his eyes and the slight tine of his smile, which accompanied his most truthful words concerning his father.

"Mine father was above mere humans," he once said.

When the king's death came, he collapsed in my arms."Now I shalt be the next," he cried.

I put my arm around him and in vain tried to comfort what must have been huge grief. This was the reason I followed him back without his knowing. How could I leave my Lord alone in a time of need? And then the time came. The ghost.

I recalled the day like yesterday. No, the day had reprinted on me like a brand on my heart. If only... That night I was summoned to the castle. Being a fool I dismissed the guard's reports. But then I saw it.

How the spectre of the old king frightened me! I could still see the inhuman glow of the ghost in my sleep. Its flaming eyes burnt me to ashes, and I woke up from the dream shivering, sweat soaking my clothes. Once upon the time the dream would end there, but...

At that time I could only speculate that it was a warning of the coming war, and my Lord as the crowning Prince might need to heed its message. How wrong I was.

After the meeting with the ghost, my lord started acted like a fool, still with wits so sharp as a knife, but now unleashed it slashed through everyone's chest. The fire in his eyes burnt harder with a fervent fever, losing the reasoning faculty that he was so known of. he maids and the servants avoided him as well as possible. The new king and his favourite courtier were seen frowning and talking together, and there was a dark rumour of exiling my Lord. Only after his explanation I could be relieved. But what a great load of lead on my lord! I dared not lay my heart's burden on him. My Lord's fiancé send her maid to inquire about his health, and then the Queen.

The Queen summoned me in secret to inquire me about her son. I could deduct from my Lord's previous words that the prince loved his mother, yet how easy love was turned to hatred in her betrayal of the King in the hastened marriage. However, despite all my knowledge about the Queen from my Lord and he court, I didn't hate her - if I dared to speak - because I could see the true worry and tears in her eyes. Whatever she may have done, she loved her son. She asked me to take care of his son, and I agreed.

When I told my Lord about his queen mother's words,There was anger in his eyes. "Why, women, thy name is fraility!" I was quiet during his sprout of anger. Then I saw it. The sign was enough to set someone less brave to a faint, and even if I tried, my lips dared not to move. My eyes dared not to blink. The eyes. The burning eyes of the ghost. Then it disappeared. My Lord, whom the ghost had to see to transfer its message, apparently saw nothing out of ordinary and I tried to behave normally. Then it faded.

My Lord assured me that his insanity was a feint for his revenge. But I was no so assured about myself. I was occupied with the ghost. What was its purpose? Slowly I could not distinguish between my Lord's feint and the actual beginning of the impact of the eyes.

Yes, the ghost's eyes.

It wouldn't leave me. I saw it awake. I saw it at dream. I saw it at day. I saw it at night. My body felt the burning heat of the eyes and my skin began to hurt. But who could I tell?

The eyes then followed me ever since. I saw them in my Lord's uncle, as I couldn't bring myself to call him the king. I saw them in the Queen's eyes. I saw them in the councilor's eyes. They were all marked by the eyes. Finally, I saw them in my lord's eyes too. My lord praised me for playing a proper role to reduce the enemy's disbelief, but who knew?

Then Lord Polonius was dead. They said my lord killed him.

Poor Laertes! The only son of his father, bearing the mantle of the family, and too early ushered into his responsibility and wore it like a coat too big for him. He might snark at me, but I never responded, because he was one left to not have the eyes. Then the Lord's uncle summoned him. When he left the room again, he bore the same mark in his eyes.

When the fair Ophelia was found in the water, only I knew the truth. She might have been too occupied with the flowers, but actually her soul was devoured by the eyes, the flaming eyes. And it were the eyes that drowned her body. But no one could I tell. Better for her to be thought of as the grievous daughter who was chaste and filial. I looked up to the sky, to find relief in the it.

Then I saw the eyes. The burning eyes of Heaven.

I looked away, shocked. That was why I couldn't reach fast enough for my Lord when he jumped into the grave.

My Lord looked at Laertes coldly and said, "Thou pray'st not well. I prithee, take thy fingers from my throat; For, though I am not splenitive and rash,Yet have I something in me dangerous, Which let thy wiseness fear: hold off thy hand." I saw Laertes in anger, but truly I feared for him more when I begged my lord to be quiet. Didn't Laertes see the fire in my lord's eyes?

On the day my Lord was sent for a journey to England, I grieved for the separation, but part of me was relieved that he could be away from the eyes. And when he returned, the flame burnt lighter, telling me about the death of the two unfaithful friends. I knew that my hope failed. The eyes were still there.

But the sky couldn't move me to part from my Lord again. If he was consumed by fire, I would follow him to the last day.

If I hadn't been burnt to ashes yet.

The wheel of fate continued to roll. Laertes challenged my Lord to a duel. My Lord agreed, and when he said the words, I wondered---

Here I would speak out the truth. Even to the world I wouldn't disclose it. I would later say that there were poison, trickery, and my Lord exacted revenge with his last breath. I would let the bards sing of this. It was fitting for the royalty.

It was the eyes. The eyes consumed them. I didn't know why I was left alone. I no longer believed in the Heaven's mercy. There must be---

With my Lord in my arms, submitting to his death. My heart was broken.

Because I knew that there was no peace even beyond death.

And the eyes would never leave me.

When I looked up into the eyes of Fortinabas, I saw my eyes reflected back in his. The same flame was here.

Something was rotten in the state of Denmark.


End file.
